VRHSRangerTBone

I know it's been two weeks since the Area D contest, but I thought I would post some recordings I took on my digital recorder of 5 of the 6 bands that made it to the State contest. The quality is pretty decent, about the sound you would expect from a pretty good camcorder, so maybe it will make some of that YouTube audio clearer if you've already found YouTube videos for some of these. Sorry I didn't get you guys, Akins! In order of finish: 1.) Cedar Park 2.) Bowie 3.) Westlake 5.) Churchill 6.) Vista Ridge This is truly one of the best (if not THE best area in the state), and I am so glad I was able to attend finals after fulfilling my duties with the Longhorn Band earlier in the day. Special congratulations to Vista Ridge (my high school alma mater) and Cedar Park (the high school most of my middle school ended up going to). Enjoy! EDIT: I apologize for the train in Vista Ridge's recording...that's not part of their show

Area A: 1. The Colony 2. Centennial Area B: 1. Fort Worth Southwest 2. Aledo (advanced after the re-listen) Area D's listening will be next Tuesday (June 26th) at 1:00 PM at Duncanville HS. The entries for the two spots there are Copperas Cove (Region 8), Willis (Region 9), Highland Park (Region 20), Waxahachie (Region 20), and Vista Ridge (Region 26). Just a somewhat biased but also somewhat educated prediction...Vista Ridge and Highland Park will advance

I was very impressed with everyone on Saturday night. It looks like GCS pretty much tripled in size, and Frontier is full of some great sound as well. And I would LOVE to see a full all-age corps in a year or two with the Austin Stars. I would be very interested once I get out of college. And the Crossmen...WOW!! So this is what having a Division I Corps in Texas is like!! Russian Christmas Music was just BEAUTIFUL!!

I'm not at Vista Ridge anymore (just graduated), but everything I heard during band camp was very very cool. I won't go into detail about everything, but there's a little bit of 2003 Phantom Regiment and a little bit of Whitacre so far. Some of you really knowledgable people might be able to pick up on a theme...

The festival was open to any Wind Ensemble in the state that got a first division at the regional UIL level, so 3A bands had their opportunity, but I guess the band directors opted out. Also, the reason there are more 1A and 2A bands (and kind of 4A) is because it is an honor band year for these classifications. Many of these bands were trying to get last minute recordings for their honor band CDs before they had to be sent in. I'm guessing that playing UIL music for a month longer from the region contest did not appeal to many 3A and 5A bands as they had no honor band recording to work for.

UIL has posted the schedule for this Saturday. Personally I thought there would be more 4A and 5A bands. In the past, schools such as Leander, Brazoswood, Bowie, Cy-Fair, Cy-Creek, The Woodlands, and Westlake have attended. Don't count out some of these 1A's and 2A's though. Harper finished 6th in the 1A Honor Band recordings last time around and Troy and Industrial finished 3rd and 5th respectively in the 2A's. Look for Connally and Vista Ridge to make some noise in the 4A Honor Band process this year as well. 1A: 9:00 AM - Plains Cody Russell 9:30 AM - McCamey Trey Singleton 10:00 AM - Harper Charles Sander 2A: 10:30 AM - Troy Curt Hentrich 11:00 AM - Hemphill Evan Richardson 11:30 AM - Academy David Wenner 12:00 PM - Littlefield Bonnie Anderson LUNCH 1:30 PM - Reagan County Bob Vetter 2:00 PM - Industrial Stephen Henry 4A: 2:30 PM - Vista Ridge Bryan Christian BREAK 3:15 PM - Connally Chico Portillo 5A: 3:45 PM - Midland Gary Doherty

This Saturday, the UIL State Wind Ensemble Festival at the University of Texas at Austin will be streamed LIVE from the UT School of Music website. This is a great opportunity to hear other bands from around the state and to get a glimpse at some of the TMEA Honor Band contestants get their final chances to record. The event website is below, and you can get to the webcast from there: http://www.music.utexas.edu/calendar/details.aspx?id=7818 Our wind ensemble (Vista Ridge) performs at 2:30 PM, and the only other band that I am sure of about their performance time is Connally at 3:30 PM. UIL hasn't posted a schedule on their website, so I'm not sure of anyone else. Does anyone here know if their band is going? If so, what time?

I played a "no memory requirement" solo for the first time this year, and I am very glad that I did. I memorized a solo in 9th grade, but it was really short and only two pages, and the next two years my solos were just too long to memorize on top of worrying about All-State stuff. I picked one of the easier ones from the list for region solo and ensemble, but for state I'm looking at doing a much more difficult one since there is more time. As for UIL's memory rule, I really don't like it at all. There are so many solos not on this virtuoso list that are long enough and difficult enough to be on there, but I'm not going to complain too much because I really like the solo I'm going to do at state If you're up for playing some harder stuff, then I would absolutely play off of the no memory list. For me, it worked out great this year because I could concentrate on other things like All-State and not have to worry about memorizing it. Good luck with it next year!

The Vista Ridge High School Wind Ensemble is playing: The Melody Shop - Karl King Postcard - Frank Ticheli Candide Suite - Leonard Bernstein Hoping we can make it a ways in 4A Honor Band this year!

My assistant director told me today that he tried to get Phantom Regiment (he is a '91 and '93 alumni) this summer but that they would prefer to stay in San Antonio the Friday before the contest. They're coming in from Dallas, but I guess they just don't want to make that stop and have to go down there Saturday morning. I would thoroughly enjoy seeing them again! The short drive down the state highway 45 tollway would be well worth it to me...especially if there aren't any corps at, let's say, Cedar Park or Leander.

Vista Ridge (4A) - 3 (an oboe, tenor trombone, and bass trombone, all of whom made first chair, tying us with McKinney North for the most first chairs in the 4A band)

I know it still may be a bit early for this, but does anyone know yet if your high school is hosting a Division I corps for a day this summer (most likely the Friday before DCI San Antonio)? We hosted the Cadets last year, but I'm not sure if we're hosting anyone this year as of yet. It is so awesome to watch these drum corps rehearse, and I am extremely anxious to do so again...even 5 months in advance

Vista Ridge Wind Ensemble is pretty sure about Postcard by Frank Ticheli and Armenian Dances Set 1 by Alfred Reed. There's still a chance those could change though. We're not sure at all about the march yet.

Yeah, that's ridiculous. I had heard a little bit about that. I hate when people feel like they have to do stuff like that. Why do they feel so much pride in doing that?

No offense, but it is not y'alls stadium. Yes, it used to be called Lion Stadium for a reason, but there's a reason it's not anymore. Just because it is located on your campus doesn't mean it belongs to your high school. There's two other high schools that use it just as much as you guys do. Also, think about all the hard work it took for Cedar Park to put that festival together. I'm sure it was an awesome fundraiser for them.